2 Minute Drill: The game MLB is playing with its players

Whatever game the MLB is playing with the players, it will make both sides look lost.

***CHRIS******VIZ SFX***Baseball has evolved into a gamethat worships at the altar ofnumbers.

When that’s O-P-S orF-I-P, great.

Sabermetrics arecool.

Airing economic dirtylaundry is not.

Quarreling overthe spoils of a multi-billiondollar sport during a globalpandemic does zero good.

Playersand the owners are bickeringover who should be the biggestloser of baseball’s return.

Theyappear completely oblivious tothe economic distress ofeveryday Americans.

...Baseballaims to start an 82-game seasonin July.

MLB delivered a 67-pagedocument outlining the safetyand testing measures related toreturning.

...But owners havethrown a monetary curveball intothe mix.

They want the playersto give up more of their moneythan previously agreed to ...sothe owners will lose less.

...Tampa Bay Rays pitcher BlakeSnell became a lightning rod forcriticism when he balked at theidea of further reducing hispay...to facilitate a return toplay.

Snell expressed concernabout the level of risk relatedto playing.

But that was drownedout by his crude mention ofdollar signs.

"I gotta get mymoney.

I’m not playing unless Iget mine," he said.

... As faras patriotic rallying cries,Snell’s isn’t exactly "give meliberty or give me death." He’smisguided.

But he wasantagonized by billionairescrying poor mouth.

MLB wouldhave you believe its balancesheet is going to suffer morelosses than the 1962 Mets.

Theowners have turned the nationalpastime into national whinetime.

In a presentation to theunion, MLB projected a $3.58billion loss during an 82-gameseason with pro-rated salaries.Commissioner Rob Manfred toldCNN that losses could approach$4 billion if there is nobaseball season.

...A wash.

So,why does baseball want to playso badly?

Manfred and ownershipwould have you believe it’s outof the goodness of theirhearts... a sense of patrioticduty.

You don’t get to haveenough money to own a sportsfranchise by doing bad deals onsentiment.

Something with MLB’smath doesn’t add up.

...Itprompts the famous quote fromNorth Dallas Forty: "Every timeI say it’s a game, you tell meit’s a business.

Every time Isay it’s a business, you tell meit’s a game." ...Whatever gameMLB is playing with